14k Gold Native American Inlay Ring Repair
It’s always so disappointing when stones fall out of your inlay ring, like with this client who came to me with her 14k gold Native American inlay ring repair. It had two segments missing already, and she was worried that even more would fall out of one of her favorite rings.
(Pictured is one side of the inlay ring to be repaired with a big stone that had fallen out of the ring.)
I offered to not only re-cut new stones to fit her inlay ring design, but also remove all of the other stones and gold banding so they could be re-epoxied. She liked this plan and shipped her ring to me to get fixed up.
(Pictured is the other side of the inlay ring with a stone missing.)
I offered to not only re-cut new stones to fit her inlay ring design, but also remove all of the other stones and gold banding so they could be re-epoxied. She liked this plan and shipped her ring to me to get fixed up.
With an inlay repair like this, I prefer to cut some of the stones before I remove the other ones. To go along with the purple chalcedony on the other side of the ring, my client chose amethyst to fill that large missing section.
For the smaller missing segment, she liked the look of the red spiny oyster shell I showed her in my digital rendition of the repair. She also wanted to swap out one of the middle turquoise pieces with something yellow, so we settled on a buttery-yellow slice of Florida agatized coral.
(Image shows my digital rendition of the inlay ring repair so my client can see if she likes the colors she selected before I start cutting stones.)
Once I cut the amethyst to fit the ring recess, I removed all of the stones and thoroughly cleaned inside the ring.
This is what the piece looks like without the stones—pretty bare! But it needs to be nice and clean before I can finish this inlay ring repair.
Now I can start re-epoxying the inlaid stones, starting from one side and working to the other. Once I reached the area with the last few stones that needed to be cut, I paused to cut those sections before I completed affixing all of the stones in place.
(Pictured is the Native American inlay ring with all of the stones put back in place with a strong 2-part epoxy. I know it looks wild at this stage, but it’s one of those “trust the process” moments!)
After giving the epoxy and stones time to cure, I was able to carefully cut the surface flush with the ring. When I had removed the stones earlier, I noticed that many of them were barely set down into the ring which makes them vulnerable to damage. When I re-epoxied them, I set them down further into the ring so they would be protected from everyday wear and tear.
Side 1 of the Native American inlay ring repair, with the stone replaced with amethyst to be a close match to the purple stone on the other side of the ring.
Side 2 of the inlay ring, where I replaced the turquoise with a yellow Florida agatized coral at the clients’s request, and filled the missing segment with red spiny oyster shell.
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